The families of 29 people killed in the Omagh bombing never wavered in their
fight for justice, but now they face another blow as two of those
responsible for the outrage go to the European Court

It is nearly 16 years since a huge explosion ripped the heart out of the town of Omagh in Northern Ireland, killing 29 passers-by, including a woman pregnant with twins, in the single worst atrocity of the “Troubles”.

In that time the relations of those killed, by 510lb of explosives packed into a Vauxhall Cavalier outside S D Kells’ clothes shop in Lower Market Street, have never wavered in their fight for justice.

The Omagh families have relentlessly pursued those identified by the police and security services as the perpetrators, through both the criminal and civil courts.

Now they face another obstacle in the quest to make the bombers pay for what they did. As disclosed by this newspaper today, two of the Real IRA terrorists found liable for the atrocity have taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Michael McKevitt, 64, and Liam Campbell, 51, were found responsible for the killings, in a landmark civil action brought by the victims’ relations, and ordered to pay a share of £1.6 million in aggravated damages.

But it has emerged that the pair have cleared the first hurdle in having the case against them overturned by the Strasbourg court, one more blow to the men, women and children left bereft by the bombing.

August 15, 1998 was a warm summer’s day in Omagh, a rural town in Co Tyrone with a population of 19,000. Parents were shopping with children, while others were going about their work. There was a party of excited Spanish tourists.

But the lives of everyone there were altered forever when, at 3.10pm, the bomb was detonated in a crowded shopping area. Three phone calls had been received, warning of the impending blast, but the calls were confused and led to dozens of people being evacuated into its path.

The explosion killed 21 people outright and injured hundreds more, eight of whom would die on their way to hospital or once there. Many survivors carry scars to this day.

Among the murdered was James Barker, a 12 -year-old whose Irish mother and English father had moved to Buncrana, Co Donegal, for a better quality of life, and Gareth Conway, 18, who had just been accepted for an engineering course at the University of Ulster and had been in Omagh to buy contact lenses.

Gareth Conway (left) and James Barker (PA/TELEGRAPH)

Breda Devine, just 20 months old, was killed and her mother, Tracey, suffered 60 per cent burns and was in a coma for six weeks, unaware of her daughter’s fate. Breda’s father, Paul, later told of the moment he identified her body. “I was told a baby had been found and a priest led me to the ward. When I reached the ward they told me that this baby was dead and asked if I would look to see if it was ours. It was,” he said.

Tracey Devine with her daughter, Breda

Eight-year-old Oran Doherty, a Celtic fan, died with his friends Sean McLaughlin and James Barker.

Oran Doherty (left) and Sean McLaughlin (TREVOR MCBRIDE)

Esther Gibson, a 36-year-old Sunday school teacher who worked in the town, died from head injuries. Her fiancé, Kenneth Hawkes, searched with her father among the carnage, eventually identifying her body at 2.30am the next day. He said: “When they killed her, I died with her. I wish I had been with her. I wish I was with her this minute.”

Esther Gibson (PA)

Two of the visiting Spaniards, Rocio Abad Ramos, 23, and Fernando Blasco Baselga, 12, were killed too. Rocio, a biology student, had been on several trips to Ireland, north and south, and loved the country.

Fernando, from Madrid, was on an educational exchange with children from Donegal and had travelled into Omagh for the day. Less than half of the children on the bus returned home that day: the rest were killed or injured. Although Fernando, whose father had been injured by an ETA bomb in Spain in 1992, was some way from the blast, he was killed instantly by a single piece of debris.

Rocio Abad Ramos (left) and Fernando Blasco Baselga (EPA/PA)

Miraculously, two other Spaniards, a man and his child – who by chance had their photograph taken next to the stolen maroon Cavalier moments before it exploded – survived.

Avril Monaghan, aged 30, was heavily pregnant with twins when she was killed, along with her baby daughter Maura, 18 months, the youngest victim, and Mary Grimes, her mother. They had been in the clothes shop, which bore the brunt of the blast.

Maura Monaghan

Samantha McFarland, a 17-year-old student, was working with her friend, Lorraine Wilson, 15, in an Oxfam charity shop when it was evacuated. Because she had the keys Samantha did not want to go too far, and the pair walked unknowingly towards the bomb. Neither survived.

Samantha McFarland (left) and Lorraine Wilson

Aiden Gallagher, a 21-year-old mechanic, was shopping for jeans. His death was not confirmed until 3.30am the next day, an agonising wait for his family. Aidan’s father Michael, said: “The list of names [of those unaccounted for] in the leisure centre was getting shorter and shorter and you just started to have that inevitability that set in, that you didn’t want to believe, that the worst was coming.”

The Royal Ulster Constabulary immediately suspected the Real IRA, dissident Republicans who objected to the peace process and had carried out a car bombing in Banbridge, Co Down, two weeks earlier.

But it was not until three days after the Omagh bombing that the organisation claimed it as their work and apologised, saying: “Any loss of civilian life is regrettable.”

It didn’t wash, either with the families of the dead and injured or with the police. But attempts to catch the terrorists responsible were bedevilled by setbacks from the start.

On Sept 22, the RUC and Irish Gardaí arrested 12 men in connection with the bombing, but all were released without charge. In February the following year, police questioned and arrested seven suspects. Colm Murphy, a builder and publican from Ravensdale, near Dundalk, Co Louth, was charged with conspiracy and was convicted on Jan 23 2002 by the Republic’s Special Criminal Court.

Murphy was sentenced to 14 years, but in January 2005 his conviction was quashed and a retrial ordered by the Court of Criminal Appeal, on the grounds that two Gardaí had falsified interview notes, and that Murphy’s previous convictions had been improperly taken into account by the trial judges.

There was also criticism of the RUC. In December 2001 Nuala O’Loan, the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, published a report strongly criticising its handling of the bombing investigation. Denounced as “grossly unfair” by Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the RUC Chief Constable, it stated that his officers had ignored the previous warnings about a bomb and had failed to act on crucial intelligence. The ombudsman said that officers had been uncooperative and defensive during her inquiry.

The families had already begun to take matters into their own hands. In October 2000, the families of James Barker, Samantha McFarland, Lorraine Wilson and Breda Devine launched a civil action against suspects named by a BBC Panorama programme, beginning the pursuit of the bombers through the civil courts.

In September 2006 meanwhile, Murphy’s nephew, Sean Hoey, an electrician from Co Armagh, went on trial accused of 29 counts of murder, and terrorism and explosives charges. Again there was no conviction. Hoey was found not guilty on all 56 charges.

The first significant victory for the Omagh families came at the High Court, in Belfast, in 2009, following their civil action against Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly, all regarded as prime suspects.

It was the first time members of a terrorist organisation had been successfully sued and the court ordered the four men to pay £1.6 million damages over the bombing.

Although the families said they did not expect to receive a penny, Aiden Gallagher’s father Michael described the decision as a “tremendous moral victory”, adding: “We have sent out an important message to terrorists and their victims around the world.”

The four men appealed against the ruling in 2011. McKevitt and Campbell lost their appeal and were refused permission to go to the Supreme Court. Murphy and Daly were granted a retrial of the civil case against them in March last year.

But their retrial delivered the same outcome as the original hearing, finding them liable for the bombing, and the families said they were determined to make the four men pay up.

Earlier this month, on April 10, Daly was charged with murdering the 29 victims of the bombing and other offences. Daly, of Cullaville, Co Monaghan, in the Republic of Ireland, was arrested in Newry after he crossed the border into Northern Ireland.

Now, in their drawn-out attempt to avoid paying compensation for their awful deeds, McKevitt and Campbell have taken their case to Strasbourg.

For the victims’ families it is another insult, and another legal battle they will have to endure if they are to see justice finally delivered.